1) The Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary and its European originalThe Jesuits in Japan published the Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary, Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum ac Iaponicum in 1595 in Amakusa. From its title and preface, it is clear that Dictionarium was edited based on the dictionary of Ambrogio Calepino. Compared to many other European Calepinos of the age, Dictionarium seems to have been edited based on one of the editions that derived from the 1570 edition published in Lyon. But it was considerably changed so that it would be suited to practical use in Japan; not only from the point that the dictionary was further simplified, but also that the editors gave detailed information of the Latin conjugation and rearranged the entries in alphabetical order. Moreover, we uncovered the facts showing that they read the original carefully and reconstructed it before they added the Portuguese and Japanese equivalents.2) The Portuguese-Latin Dictionary compiled by Manoel BarretoA
… MorePortuguese Jesuit missionary Manoel Barreto (1564?--1620), who worked as a Latin teacher in collegio in Japan, and became the secretary of Luis de Cerqueira, the Bishop of Japan, complied the Portuguese-Latin dictionary (1606-1607) and the manuscript in three volumes written almost entirely in the author's own hand is now in the possession of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon. One of the characteristics of this dictionary is that it has a bibliography in Portuguese and Latin, a preface, and introductory notes written in detail before the text body. When we analyze the dictionary texts and these prefaces, it seems that he used mainly four sources, that is, the Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary published by the Jesuits in Japan, the Latin-Portuguese, Portuguese-Latin dictionary by Jeronimo Cardoso, the Cicero dictionary by Mario Nizzolio and the Latin dictionary of Ambrogio Calepino. Barreto is quite well known for his works such as medieval Japanese linguistic studies (the Vatican and British Library codices) as well as a Latin anthology (Flosculi, published in 1610) during his stay in Japan. This dictionary gives not only linguistic information on the lexicographical endeavor of the Society of Jesus in Japan, but also insights into the academic foundation of the Society of the early Christian era in Japan. Less